IIMs finally give up, concede that IIPM is beyond them

Ahmedabad. Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have accepted for once and for all that one needed to dare think beyond the IIMs to get into IIPM. This lays down an end to the controversy that started a few years back after some bloggers disputed IIPM’s claims in its advertisements, which has the famous tagline “dare to think beyond the IIMs”. IIMs will come out with full page print advertisements in the coming days accepting that IIPM was beyond the IIMs.

“We have never published any full page advertisement in any newspaper, but due to this being a matter of national importance, we have decided to issue full page color advertisements that would clarify our stand. We are no match to IIPM and there can’t be any comparison at all. At a time when we were worried about placing our students due to recession, IIPM was planning parties for their students with Shahrukh Khan. They are really special while we are just another government institute.” IIM Ahmedabad director Sameer Barua said.

IIM directors took this decision when they met earlier today to discuss the issues like pay hikes, fee hikes and more autonomy for the institutes. IIM Ahmedabad had already given the Human Resource Ministry a one-month ultimatum to accept its demand for world-class pay for the faculty members. IIM directors concluded that they would need to fight a long drawn battle with the government to get their demands accepted, and in order to fight this battle, they must close all other contentious issues to conserve energy and focus.

“We hope IIPM will now stop publishing ads claiming the obvious. There is no point if Pizza Hut comes up with a full page advertisement announcing that they have pizzas in their store. I hope ours would be the last full page advertisement in newspapers containing the name of IIMs.” IIM Indore director Ravi Chandran said.

IIPM founder and director Arindam Chaudhuri has welcomed the decision of IIMs and called it ‘historic’, although he didn’t guarantee that IIPM will stop using the tagline “dare to think beyond the IIMs”. He demanded that all the bloggers who had earlier cast aspersions on IIPM should be put behind bars now.

But IIMs may run into trouble for issuing full page color advertisements at a time when the government was championing austerity in public life. Experts warn that the move could further strain the relations between the premier institutes and the government. Experts have suggested the IIMs to either wait for four more days if it was too urgent, or a little less than three months to be absolutely safe.

“The message that IIPM was beyond IIMs could be embedded in the birthday greetings of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that falls on the 26th September. The IIMs could issue full page greetings with the embedded message to wish the PM a happy birthday. They may escape the government fury this way, but to be absolutely on the safer side, I’d advise them to wait till 9th December, which is the birthday of Sonia Gandhi.” Biju Bijaikar, an independent consultant and expert on various issues, suggested.